Author: bbcbike

By Glenn Berger with an update from Jim Schroeder

Ten brave souls showed up at Bryan park to do the Ye Old Hilly Route to Nashville.  Two of these 10 were new to the BBC (Derrick and James). Considering the weather man was calling for 100% chance of rain in the middle of the ride I decided to stick to the 33 mile route to keep us close to home.  After a brief mechanical delay we were off at 10:15 AM. The group quickly split into 4 faster riders (two of which were out for the “epic” 100 mile journey) and 6 of us hanging back to smell the roses.

The 6 of us stopped at Mt. Gilead to regroup and consider our options. Since none of us were in a hurry and we believed we were all doing the 33 mile we detoured to Mt. Gilead to enjoy the scenery and get away from 45 for a bit.  We called the 4 faster riders and told them not to wait up for us.  After Mt. Gilead rejoined 45 we debated about Shuffle Creek vs. the 33 mile option for the planned ride.  At this point CE and David turned and headed back and the remaining 4 of us pressed on the planned route.  We soon rejoined Keith and Klaus who had backtracked to find us.

After a very scenic ride into Brown county we said goodbye to three of our riders doing the 55 mile route as they pressed on.  Just Keith, James and myself finished up a very nice and leisurely ride on South Shore, Robinson, Old 37 and finally back into Bloomington.

All in all an excellent day for a ride (and thank goodness the weatherman was off by a few hours this time).

Update from Jim Schroeder and the Century Crew:



Tom Schroeder, Mike Finger, and Jim Schroeder raced through Nashville and onto Stonehead where we turned west on Bellesville Pike. The newbies enjoyed this new road and scenery. We came upon a group of 20 cyclists going east toward Story Wine Festival, and a few of them were old friends of Jim from Ft Wayne. Small world! We thanked them for stimulating southern Indiana economy and headed to Columbus for lunch at Papa’s Deli. Tom told us of another stop downtown, an authentic soda fountain just a block south of Papa’s. Mike flatted due to some rough pavement on Hoover Rd as we heard some thunder rumbling. The skies emptied just before Bean Blossom as we rode the last 25 miles in light showers.
I was just thinking, if there were only 10 riders and 3 of us did the century, that’s 30%. What a great turnout for the first C ride!

By Jodi Pope-Pfingston

The Slowspokes group is off to a great start! Anndra,  Marion, and I share ride leader responsibilities for this ride, enabling a No Rider Left Behind policy intended to provide beginning riders with a sense of security, as well as a more sedate pace for experienced riders who  prefer to sit back and enjoy the ride.  This mixture of seasoned and beginning riders has created a great opportunity for new riders to learn cycling safety and etiquette and the chance to familiarize themselves with safe cycling routes in and around Bloomington.

With only two rides cancelled so far due to Spring rains, the group has enjoyed three rides, including the Waterworks ride, a trip to Pine Grove, and a route south that included a return trip along the Clear Creek Trail and the B-Line trail. We have seen riders ranging in age from 14 to 67 and have ridden a total of 45 miles. A great beginning for this new group ride, and we have the whole summer in front of us!

By Allan Edmonds

Thursday, April 1, saw both weekday training groups end up doing very similar rides in opposite directions. The OWLS left promptly at 5:44 from SOCC Parking Lot, with several of us showing up just as the main group headed out. A couple of riders stayed back to be sure the late arrivals knew the route and headed in the right direction. We all got caught up within two or three miles. Shelley was leading what the OWLS call the Old 37 – Strain Ridge Ride, of about 26 miles. Because it was just a little on the long side for so early in the season she wanted to be sure we didn’t waste any daylight. We headed out to Victor Pike, down to Fluck Mill, south on Old 37 almost to Harrodsburg, then across to Strain Ridge, and from there back into town through Smithville.

Here three riders are coming into our final regrouping spot in Smithville:

And here’s the lead group already waiting at the Smithville PO:

We had been quite surprised to see the other regular Tuesday-Thursday training group going the other way as we got close to Harrodsburg on Old 37. They had a good group of a dozen or more riders, well spread out over a couple of miles, doing what they call “The Thursday Night Ride,” naturally enough.  I suppose that all together we had around 25 BBC riders out that evening, doing from 26-30 miles, at the beginning of April, no less. We all made it home in good fashion, but there wasn’t much daylight left. I’m glad we didn’t have any mechanical difficulties to slow us down along the way.

P.S. It was good to get in a longer Thursday ride, since the Saturday morning ride turned out to be rained out.

Those of us that took the short route had a nice ride back to town. A smaller group rode out to Pine Grove and enjoyed the easier and flatter miles on old 446.

By Glenn Berger

I hope everybody enjoyed the ride as much as I did.  Yes it was a little hilly, but boy was the weather perfect and the scenery nice.

This was my first attempt at leading a Saturday ride and I was quite surprised by the turnout (33 people/bikes!).  Instead of the normal talk about how scenic this or that was I’ll simply give a few observations from my first lead ride of the year.

(1)  This is a great club and I really enjoy riding with all of you.

(2)  Don’t be bashful about being a ride leader.  It really is easy…here’s all you have to do…print maps and hand them out and just say go.  Then just let the group mentality take over and enjoy a nice paced ride at the back and make some new friends or revisit with some old ones (I got to do BOTH ;).

As for the details…I don’t have exact numbers, but around 7 people split off at Ketchum and Fluck Mill for the 17 mile route, but in the end some of them ended up with 32 miles.  The remainder group stayed together until Popcorn where the long haulers, around 10 or so, made a right turn and all the rest of us turned left to go into Harrodsburg and finally back to Bloomington.

I hope everybody had great time!

By Allan Edmonds

We did a pleasant 20 mile loop down and up on Ramp Creek, through Smithville, across 37, by Fluck Mill, and back into town climbing Victor. The weather was nice and sunny, slightly cool, in the low 60s and gradually dropping through the ride.

We started out with 14 riders and 13 bikes (Glenn and daughter on tandem). The group included one person on his first club ride and several on their first OWLS ride of the season. Several familiar faces from last season back for more. We picked up a couple of extra riders along the way, and then lost a handful of people who decided “to return home another way.”  When we were briefly stopped for regrouping at the Kroger on Walnut Street Pike, Stan congratulated me on getting back with over 50% of the riders who started out. We got back a little after 7:30. I wouldn’t want to be much later, especially for for those who still have a mile or two to get home. By 7:35 it definitely feels like dusk.

Here we are at our regular regrouping spot at the church at Fairfax and Ramp Creek:

We had to wait a bit for Doug and Cathy to catch up. Cathy had her computer pop off and bounce into the weeds. Doug stopped to help search for it. They found it!

Here’s Doug, followed by Cathy cresting Ramp Creek:

Ten OWLS did a hilly route to the west on a fine spring evening. The temperature was in the low 60s, dropping a bit as the sunlight waned. Nineteen miles was just about right, with people able to get home by 7:30, well before sunset at 7:56. We stopped at the bridge on the Clear Creek Trail for a photo-op and introductions.

In the photo are Chris, Tammy Tom, Dan, Greg, Ben, Gail, and Bill. Patrick stopped short of the bridge for a little equipment adjustment. We picked up a final rider (John) around the half-way point. Soon after that people gradually split off to head home, so that we got back to the park with about 5 riders.

We had serious climbs on That Road up to 37, two good climbs on Rockport around the Independent Limestone Company, the familiar climb up Victor as we headed back toward town, not to mention the steady climbs up Schacht Road and the finish along Sare.

As usual county roads were in rough shape in several stretches, with Tramway being perhaps the worst. For whatever reason, Rockport was classed to through traffic from Tramway onward, resulting in a bit more traffic than usual on Tramway.

The Owls met at 5:45 on Tuesday at SOCC for the first ride of the new season.  The weather was in the mid-50’s with enough sun to keep us warm.   A total of nine riders completed the 17 mile, mostly flat ride at an average speed of 13.5 mph.  We rode through neighborhoods to route 446, then out Knightridge to Holly Lane and returned by the same route.  We made it home with plenty of light remaining for those who had a few miles more to ride home.

We had our annual End-of-Winter banquet and business meeting at Chapman’s on Saturday evening, March 6.

By decision of the executive board and in a departure from recent practice we charged a nominal $5 per person. (The actual cost is closer to $20.) This helps people take RSVP a little more seriously, and it also is more in line with our non-profit status.

There were approximately 90 people there, including several guests from agencies that received BBC grants this year.

Social Director Autumn McCoy opened the evening with a welcome and some announcements. Mark Villanova offered an invocation.

After dinner co-president Jennifer Miers presided.

She introduced several club members who said a few words about the different ride opportunities this year: Saturday touring rides (with short medium and long options, including century possibilities at least once a month in the summer), Sunday NiceNEasy rides, Tuesday/Thursday Training Rides, Wednesday women’s rides, Tuesday/Thursday OWLS training rides, and, something new, Saturday afternoon Slow Spokes rides.

Jennifer Smallwood, chair of our Grant Committee introduced representatives of the various groups and agencies that received funding through our grant process, and those people shared a few words about their grant plans. It was actually quite heartening to see the kinds of “micro-financed” activities going on in the community from our grants. We’ll discuss this more in another post. For now, let’s emphasize that it is the income from RAIN, the Ride Across Indiana, that has allowed us to develop our grant program, which fits very nicely in with our non-profit status. In particular it is the income from jersey sales, developed by RAIN director Joe Anderson and Barbara Anderson, that has funded our grants.

Then we moved to election of officers. Secretary Keith Bobay introduced the slate put forward by the nominating committee. The following were elected to one-year terms:

Keith Vogelsang, President
Mark Villanova, Vice President
Kathy Cummins, Secretary
Joe Anderson, Treasurer

We would be remiss without mentioning the retiring officers: Co-presidents Jen Miers and Mark Napier, Vice President Tom Whitehead, and Secretary Keith Bobay, and thanking them for their effective service to the club this past year. In addition here are some of the people who  served in other capacities in 2009:

Adopt-a-Road initiative: Jen Miers
Nice ‘N Easy rides: Ron Brown
Women’s Rides: Jen Miers
Touring Director: Mike Finger
Blog editor: Allan Edmonds
Website: Mark Napier, Keith Vogelsang
Web Re-design: Klaus Rothe
Safety and Education: Cathy Meyer
Advocacy: Keith Vogelsang
Grants: Jennifer Smallwood
RAIN director: Joe Anderson
Membership: Tammy Berger, succeeding Jim Lang
Nominating Committee: Keith Vogelsang
OWLS organization: CE Taylor
Electronic map development: Jim Schroeder

(Let me know if I’ve inadvertently omitted someone who should be on this list.)

Finally Cathy Meyer introduced the evening’s speaker, Raymond Hess, Senior Transportation Analyst for the city of Bloomington, bicycling commuter, and trained League of American Bicyclists instructor, discussed issues of bicycling safety. Interestingly, he pointed out that of all bicycling crashes, only 17% involve motorized vehicles. Of those, fully half are the fault of the cyclists. He then proceeded to discuss the most common issues in bicycle/car interaction.

Saturday March 6 marked an auspicious beginning of a new ride season for the BBC.

In the morning around 24 riders did the ride to Muscatatuck and Beyond under the able leadership of Touring Director Mike Finger. Although he says he didn’t get an accurate count, he assures us that with 95% probability everyone made it home safely. Kathy Smith reported on Facebook that she did right at 31 miles and returned home with a warm glow.

By afternoon the temperature was about 50 and a dozen riders came out for the inaugural ride of the new Slow Spokes group and did a 20 mile out and back to the Waterworks, averaging about 10 mph on the bike.

A special thanks to Anndra Morgan, Jodi Pope-Pfingston, and Marion Kreifeldt for organizing this new family-friendly, new rider-friendly, group.

So all together we had around 36 riders out on the first nice Saturday in a long time. Great!